Back during the second week of class, I spent a bunch of time reviewing the research on the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education and virginity pledges. Large meta-analyses show that neither delay first incidence of sex or reduce transmission of STIs. I also mentioned purity balls during that class, and have previously posted about them on the blog (here and here).
The following piece was recently published in the New York Times:
‘Purity Balls’ Get Attention, but Might Not Be All They Claim
In 1998, in Colorado Springs, Randy Wilson threw the first “purity ball,” a formal dinner and dance at which he and other fathers signed pledges to protect the virginity of their unmarried daughters. This October, Mr. Wilson will host his 13th purity ball (they have been almost annual). And from the first ball to now, the Wilson family has made an industry of purity.
A field director for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian organization, Mr. Wilson has promoted purity balls across the United States, and his Web site says they have been held in 48 states. He and his wife, Lisa, have written a book, and they sell a “purity ball packet” for $90.
Three of their five daughters also wrote a book, “Pure Woman.” One of those daughters, Jordyn Wilson Peppin, runs the Purely Woman School of Grace, a weeklong program where “ladies” can learn a godly path to “etiquette, grace and hosting.”
The media have lustily promoted the Wilsons. The family has been featured on Anderson Cooper’s television show, in magazines like Glamour, in many newspapers, includingThe New York Times, and in at least two documentaries: one, a Swiss production called “Virgin Tales,” was released this summer.
But there is something fishy about all this media attention.
Despite all the coverage of the Wilson family and their balls’ dramatic imagery — the girls doing ballet, placing roses before a cross, ballroom-dancing with their dads — there is little hard evidence that purity balls have spread much beyond Colorado Springs. And even some alumnae of Mr. Wilson’s dances express skepticism that they had much effect.
In her 2010 book “The Purity Myth,” the feminist writer Jessica Valenti, founder of the blog feministing.com, reported that “more than 1,400 purity balls” were held in 2006. Her footnote refers to a 2007 article by Jocelyne Zablit, who gives as the source of that figure Leslee J. Unruh, the president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, in South Dakota. Reached by telephone this week, Ms. Unruh was rather more vague with her figures.
Go get the rest of the scoop here.